"You just have to plan way far ahead," Dickinson said with a laugh during a recent phone interview from a Nashville, Tenn., tour stop. "But it's really been a blast. We're so fortunate in that we're all like-minded."

Dickinson, 41, is best known as the singer-guitarist in The North Mississippi Allstars, a band he formed with his brother, drummer Cody, and bassist Chris Chew. The group has been nominated for three Grammy Awards in the best contemporary blues album category, and won a Blues Music Award in 2001 for best new artist.

For the Southern Soul Assembly tour, Dickinson is focusing on playing songs from his new solo record, "Rock 'n' Roll Blues," which he said fits in nicely with the show's mostly acoustic format.

"I'm playing all new songs with just an acoustic guitar and it's the perfect venue for these songs," he said. "The show starts out with acoustic guitars and then it grows because I brought a mandolin, and J.J.'s got some foot drums, and I've got a tub bass and I got my lowebow (a kind of cigar-box guitar), and Anders has an electric guitar.

"By the end of it, it's pretty much a full-blown jug band and it's rocking pretty good."

Dickinson's "Rock 'n' Roll Blues" has been called a "musical autobiography," and he doesn't dispute that tag. The album's first song, "Vandalize," was written when he was a teenager after his father, legendary producer Jim Dickinson, took him to see punk band Black Flag at a record store. Other songs document his experiences on the road and many of the ups and downs of being a working musician.

"It's definitely all based on my life. It's all true stuff," he said. "Some of the songs are old, some of them are brand new. I've been writing this album for a long time and the older songs never fit with the other records. Eventually, I saw how all of the old songs fit together and then I continued writing for that.

"But, yeah, it's definitely my life story -- a young dude growing up playing music and going on the road. Hopefully, other people can relate to it because it has a lot of inside music jokes."

In addition to playing solo and with the Allstars, Dickinson somehow finds the time to record and tour with several other artists -- including John Hiatt and The Black Crowes -- as well as working on additional side projects with musician friends. He said there are "multiple reasons" for his keeping so busy.

"One is the artistic satisfaction, but also, as a working-class musician supporting a family, you can't work one band all year round," he said. "You have to have different things to support yourself in this climate.

"And it also helps to put everything in its rightful place. We used to try to filter every different idea and experiment into the North Mississippi Allstars, but over the years, once I broke ground and had more outlets for the other ideas and aesthetics, it really made the Allstars stronger.

"I just follow my instincts and my ideas and my community. Like the (South Memphis String Band) with Jimbo Mathus and Alvin Youngblood Hart -- those are two of my best friends and it was an excuse for us to get together. And we were hustling. When we booked our first tour, all we had was our picture and one song on MySpace. During the tour, we recorded our first record one afternoon at the XM radio station. It was all just a hustle.

"And then I started the girl band (The Wandering), with Valerie June and Amy Lavere and that was just an idea and it grew.

"The beautiful thing is that I have such a wonderful infrastructure behind me because of the Allstars that it's easy for me to place all of these outlets into a professional working situation."